Telephone pay-station.



T. H. ROLAND. TELEPHONE PAY STATION. AAPPLIOATION FILED AUG. 11. 1908.

Patented May 18, 1909.

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' Witness v T. H. ROLAND. TELEPHONE PAY $TATION. APPLIOATION FILED AUG.11,1908.

r Patented May 18, 1909.-

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' UNITED STATES PATENT caries.

THOMAS H. ROLAND, OF HUNTINGTON, WEST VIRGINIA, ASSIGNOR OI! ONE-FIFTH TO ABRAHAM TW EE L, OF HUNTINGTON, WEST VIRGINIA.

TELEPHONE PAY-STATION.

Specification of :Letters Patent;

Patented May 18, 1909.

Application flied August 11, 1908. serial no. 448,044.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 'I, TnoiuAs, ROLAND,

a citizenof the United'States,"residing at Huntington, in the county of Cahel-l and State of'West 'Virginia,.have invented new and useful Improvements in Telephone Pay- Stations, of which the following-is a specito manufacture and instalh. tl oroug -y re l liable andefficient in use, andreadily maniip-t ulated.

Another object of' the'inventi on is the provision of a coinreceptacle containing suitably.

arranged contacts and a coin-carrier disposed in cooperative relation thereto so that each coin of proper denomination and size will engage its respective contact or contacts and so thereby make and break a signal circuit leading from the pay station to the central exchange for informing" the toll operator of the nature of the coin deposited and thus keep a check on the users of the pay station.

- With these'objects in view and others, as.

willappear as the description proceeds, the invention comprises the various novel fea-' tures of construction and arrangement of 'nectrons.

arts which will be more fully ,described hereinafter and set forthwith particularity in the claims appended hereto. 7

In the accompanying; drawings, which illustrate one embodiment of the invention, Figure 1 is a vertical section of the apparatus, together with a diagram of the circuit" con Fig. 2 is a front interior view of the apparatus. Fig. 3- is a perspective view of the contact-carrying members. Fig. 4 is a detail view of one of the coin pockets of the coin carrier.

Similar reference characters are employedto designate corresponding parts throughout the views. p

Referring to the'drawings, A designates a box or casing of any suitable construction.

for one of its. objects to tioned.- The plates have which is adapted to belocated under a telephone sct in. the usual manner and provided at its top-with a plurality of coin slots 1 of.

nickels, dimes,-- quarters, half-dollars, and

by a'horizontal partition 2 into an upper switch compartment 3 and a lower compartment that is divided by a vertical partition 4 into acoin chamber 5 and a battery cham-' her 6 ,the'coin chamber .communicatm with the. compartment 3 so that coinsfcan' be'deposited from' the carrier freely into such chamber; Inthev chamber 3 are vertical parallel plates of wood or insulation on resent instance, there are five such 'c'onnection with-the five coins above 1nen.- approximately semicircular surfaces 12 on w oh the sta: tionary contacts are arranged. The plate 7 is provided withone contact 12,.the late8 'with two contacts 13,- the plate 9 wi-t three contacts 14, the plate 10 withfour contacts 15, and the plate 11 with fivecontacts lo.

These contacts arein the form of strips and extend longitudinally over the concave or a'rcuate faces of the plates. front of the contact-carryingplate is an oscillatory coin-carrying member 17 mounted with the centers from which the semi-circular faces 12 1 of the plates are struck. Secured to one end of the coin carrier is an operating handle -19-v which passes out of the casing 18 whereby the carrier can be turned half revolution for the purpose of causing a coin to enga e its contact or contacts to make and break'tlie signal circuit extending from the pay station to the central exchange and to dinally deposit the .coin at the end of the stroke of the carrier. The carrier is normally maintained inan upright position by a spring 21 so that it will receive a coin dropped through any slot in the top of the casing. The carrier 17 is constructed with recesses or coin pockets 22 of different sizes to suit the 'coins, and in caclnpocket is a spring 23 so arranged as to yieldingly hold the coin with aportlon of its periphery pro ected out-of the pocket and in the path of the stationary COD: tact or contacts opposite such pocket A strip of metal extends across the open front which the variouscontacts are mountech; In the plates -esignated 7 8,9; 10. and-11, for u'se in Disposed in on a horizontal shaft 18 that is coincidentdifferent sizes forv receiving such coins as dollars. Theinterior of the casing isdivided through a slot 20 concentric with the shaft sides of the recesses for the. coin pockets to act as a keeper and retain the-coins 1n. pos1-- tion after entering the pockets from the coin slots .and during the time the carrier is turned to its lowermost position On the carrier are wires 241 that lead to the several pockets so as toelectri'cally connect with .the coin in any pocket whereby of the'coin with" the--stat1onary contact or contacts opposite the same will make and break the-signal circuit. Thew'i'res- 24 are connected wlthna common conductor 25 that is connected with 'a'binding post 26, the con:-

, 'nection'sn The staticnary contacts are con-" nected by wires 27 Wltll' a common conductor ductor beingflexible so that"the carrier can be freely oscillatedifithout breaking con 29 that leads to "the battery 13;. The batteries are connected with one side of a main line that leads to the central exchange ofiice, while the opposite side is connected with the binding .post 26, and arranged in the main line circuit at. the central station is an eleo-' v tric bell C or equivalent signaling means and -a cut-out D.-' Arranged over the top end of each stationary contact is a leaf spring 30 that has its upper end fastened to a contactcarr 'ng plateand its lower end curved out-. war ly away .from the concave face of the plate to act as a'stop for preventing back ward movement of the coin' carrieras'long as a coin is held in the latter. v The .coins,.while in the carrier, are 'free. to slide over thep springs "is preventedby the coins en or stops as the carrier is moved downwardly, but any backward movement aging'the lower spring stops. his prevents a edges of the A by a back and forth. movement of the person,

carner, to make and break the signal circuit er denonn-' Snccessiyely witha coin of smal nation-in an endeavor to deceive central that a coin of larger denomination has been dropped into the coin boxto pay for the use of the phone. When the coin carrier has reached the limit of its downward stroke, the

spring pressingon thecoin held in the car- 1161' wil be ejected by the spring and also by gravity and thus drop into the coin chamber.-

The coin carrier is then released so as to re-' turn to normal position for use by the next person. Y Y Y In using the apparatus,- the person desirin to send a message first calls up the centra exchange operator and asks for connection with the person to whom he desires to speak, f and if such connections can be obtained,

central informs him to deposit a-coin of the required denomination to pay thetoll.. The

' user deposits-such coin. in the appro riate slot and then turns the crank and e '19 downwardly for the purpose of making. and breaking the signal circuit and to deposit the coinin the coin chamber. The central ex-.

the engagementchaiige pperator will thus know by the num be 0 times the bell rmgswhether or not the ..coi n of proper .denominationi has been dropped'into thep'ay station com box. In

the present instance, the stationary contacts are so arranged that when a nickel is deposited and the device 0 erated, thebell will rin once, whereas' wit dimes, quarters half-do ars and dollars,- the bell or signal will be energized two, three, four and five times.

From the fore o'ingi description, taken in connection with t e accompanying drawings, the advantages of the cbnstruction and of the method of operation will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art to which the mvention a pertains, and while'I have described.

the principle of operation of the invention,

together with the device which I now con-.

sider to be the best embodiment thereof,"I desire to have it understood that-the apparatus shownis merely illustrative, and t at such changes may be made when-desired as are within the'scope of the claims appended ereto.

' Having thus described the invention what i 1. A device .of the class described com prising a casing, a plurality of sets of'contacts, a carrier movable .alongthe contacts,

the carrier 1s moved,..devioes'arran ed in line with'the contacts to be engaged y the backward movement of the deposit of the coin coin for preventing the earner prior to from the latter, a circuit made and broken by the coin passing over any set of contacts, and a signal includedin the said circuit. 7

means for holding a coin on the carrier. opposite any set of contacts to engage the same as r 2.. A device of the class described comleading from the device to the central station and adapted'to be opened and closed by a coin engaging any. set of contacts.

casing, sets of arcuate contacts 3; A device of the class described com- I prising a casing, sets of contacts arranged therein and dlsposed around a common center, an oscillatory earner, means for yieldingly holdinga coin on the carrier in. a posi- 1 tion to engage anyset of contacts, means for manually operating the carrier, means adapted to be engaged by a coin for preventing reverse movementiofthe carrier,v

any .of the contacts.

'4. A device. of the class described com s prising a plurality of sets of contacts each arranged man arc of a circle, a coin carrier arranged to hold a coin op osite any set of contacts and to engage t e same, a stop arranged at the end of each contact to be engaged by a coin in thecarrier' forpreventj and a] signal circuit controlled by a coin engaging 5. Thecombinat'ionof a' pluralit ing backward niotrement of the latter means; for moving the carrier in one direction, and aspring for r'eturmng the carrier after the same deposits the com. a of plates disposed side by side' m spaced re ation and havingarcuate frontedges struck around a common center, metal strips facing the arenand normally projecting operating the shaft.

6. A device'of these-lass described comprising a lurali-ty of contacts 0 'eachset being arranged in a'line,

yielding members adjacent each set of consame, a movabl ate edges and varying in number, leaf springs f the beginmng, v0fto erect, a-carrier,v a shaft for.

\ contacts. over and in contact with. the saidstrip and springs,-and means for sets ofbontacts, the

tacts and projecting normally beyond the e carrier, means for holding a coin on the carrier opposite any set of contacts' for engaging the. same and depressing the said members as the carrier moves for-. wardly, said members being arranged to engage the coin toprevent" backward move- -ment, of 'thecarrier While the 00111 remains thereon, a conductor connected with the contacts, a conductor on the carrier arranged. be electricallj connected with the coin, and a signal connected with the said conductors'to be'actuatedas the circuit. is made and broken by the coin passing over the In testimony whereof Iafihi my signatureiii-presence of two witnesses. v

p I THOMAS Witnesses: I J. W. PERRY,

" .AB'RAHAM TWEEL. 

